1. Field
The invention relates to means and methods for forming surgical and orthopedic supports.
2. State of the Art
Casts of plaster of Paris are widely used in stabliization of broken bones during healing and in sustaining traction, pull, counter-traction or counter-pull during orthopedic treatment. Rigid splints have also been used in stabilization of broken bones during healing.
Many shortcomings are known in the use of either rigid splints or plaster of Paris casts. Splints are awkward and apply pressure to the body where it is neither appropriate nor desirable. Further, there is no way of applying the splints so as to provide defined support areas for proper stabilization of a fractured bone. Plaster of Paris casts are somewhat less awkward than splints, and less susceptible to the misapplication of pressure than splints. Plaster of Paris casts do not, however, provide desirable definition of support areas for proper stabilization of a fractured bone. The problem encountered in providing for proper support areas is often due to a lack of visibility of the portion of the body to which the cast is being applied, and, all too often, the person applying the cast will provide for a support area much too close or too far removed from the sustained injury. Other disadvantages in using plaster of Paris casts are the length of time for the plaster to set, the weight of the cast, a tendency to maintain a moist condition next to a wound around which the cast is set, which, together with the difficulty in dressing such wounds, creates adverse conditions from a therapeutic standpoint. The cast produces patient discomfort and disagreeable odors due to the lack of ventilation, and the cast must be completely removed and replaced when swelling of the injured portion of the body occurs.
There has been a long felt need in the art to provide improved surgical and orthopedic supports which overcome the above mentioned disadvantages. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,308,483; 2,373,802; 2,384,804; and 2,489,253, methods and materials are disclosed for forming a cast by wrapping strips of material made of plastic about the injured member and bonding the strips of plastic together to form a unitary structure. The resulting cast is very similar in appearance to plaster of Paris casts, and, although the time needed for bonding the palstic material is considerably less than the setting time for plaster of Paris casts, the plastic casts exhibit all the other disadvantages inherent in plaster of Paris casts.